Flock1 reminds me of an occasion when I had an elderly idjit try to fly into the back of me whilst I was landing at the end of an air test of an instructor's private aeroplane at Sywell.
He and I went over for a chat with this pilot who was about 70 and whose first words when I asked for a word were "I've got ten thousand hours".
The expression on his face when the instructor whose aeroplane I'd been flying - who was about 21 but looked about 16 told this fool that he was a PPL examiner was really quite priceless.
Not to deny that there are many superb pilots out there in their seventies or older - just not that one.
This is of course largely off-topic, other than people with that attitude around clubrooms is hardly calculated to encourage new youngsters into the joys of private aviation.
However flock1's post brings a few further thoughts to my mind:-
(1) Do flying clubs like to tell you that there are many other ways of flying than renting incredibly expensive club 172s and PA28s. For example PFA aircraft, large syndicates, microlights, gliders (for that matter syndicates on PFA aircraft, microlights, etc.) ....
I fly three aircraft regularly. One is a PA28 in a large syndicate costing me about £60/hr (based upon the 3 hours per month I fly in it), another is a small 2-seat taildragger (on a permit) in a smaller syndicate which similarly calculated costs me about £23/hr, the last is my own, a 2-seat microlight, and costs me about £500/yr plus fuel at around £12/hr. Okay there are purchase costs in there - but shares in our taildragger are currently going for £250 - or about 2 hours at Flock's quoted club rates. Even the PA28 share only cost me £2k a couple of years ago and I could probably sell it now for around £2.5k. Any way you look at it, all of these are far cheaper than club rental
(2) Flying is invariably cheaper and more hassle free at smaller club strips than big regional fields. I think this message doesn't always get out.
(3) Punctuality is a virtual impossibility in GA - for many sound reasons, these sort of realities need to be communicated early to any student pilot - and qualified pilots need to be educated in being realistic about this.
G
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 6th December 2004 at 16:45.